


My Tormentor, My Love

by quantumlittlecat



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Fate & Destiny, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-06-19
Packaged: 2019-10-26 02:31:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17737340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quantumlittlecat/pseuds/quantumlittlecat
Summary: SoulMatch promises to help you find your soulmate, safely from the privacy of your own home - like Match.com, but the only match you'll ever get is your soulmate. Of course, Darcy signs up the second she can.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title is based on an awesome poem, Be Near Me by Faiz Ahmed Faiz. Idk why, but I love the idea of Darcy growing up in a tiny town and never fitting in.

“I just don’t see why you would do it, takes all the fun out of it if you ask me.”

Darcy sighs and rolls her eyes.

“Of course you don’t mom. And it only tells me what I want it to. I’m not spoiling it completely, jeez,” Darcy huffs. She stares intently at the computer screen, cropping images carefully. “I just wanna know if they’re out there, really. Maybe a first name and where they live.” Darcy’s mom tuts disapprovingly.

“Still sweetheart, putting your handwriting on the internet websites hardly seems safe, and your soulmark too? Just looking for trouble if you ask me…”

“Moooom,” Darcy groans. “It’s just one website, and it’s really secure. Everyone at school is using it, and Marissa from AP U.S. History is already emailing her match! And I’m not putting my whole soulmark up there, just cropping the letters so they can match it with their database.” Darcy’s mom looks up from the stove, eyeing her daughter critically.

“Not everyone on the internet can see the mark, right? It’s still bad luck to show it, you know,” she sniffs. Darcy groans.

“Just look Mom,” she says, motioning her mom over to the worn kitchen table. Her mom sits next to her, wooden spoon still in hand, graying hair pulled back in a loose, untidy bun. She turns the screen towards her slightly. “I can’t see anything anyone has put up, and no one can see what I’ve uploaded either. They just tell me if my soulmate has an account. If I pay for the membership thing, they’ll let me see my soulmate’s info too.”

“Oh honey, you’re not paying for this, are you?” Darcy bites her lip. She’s been saving all she can from her part-time job at the grocery store, in the hopes that she can set up the account for a few years.

“It’s just…you and dad had already met by the time you were my age.”

“Darcy, it was a different time,” her mom says softly, wrapping her arm around her daughter. “People these days meet their soulmates a little later. Besides, not everyone at school has met their soulmate I’m sure.” Darcy screws up her face in irritation.

“Sure feels that way,” she grumbles. Her mom gives her a reassuring squeeze.

“Honey is this about Jessica? You knew once high school started a lot of kids would start meeting their soulmates. I’m sure when things settle down with her match, she’ll want to hang around her friends again. Jackson is the only high school around here, people are bound to find their soulmates then. In fact, it’s a good thing your soulmate doesn’t go there.”

“Yeah?” Darcy asks, blinking back tears. “Why’s that?”

“It means you’ll leave Jackson County. Girls like Jessica and me, we get to meet our soulmates young, but we don’t tend to leave here. She’ll probably do what your father and I did. Get married right after graduation, get a job here, and raise their family right here too. And while that was God’s plan for me and Jessica, is that what you want for yourself?”

“No,” Darcy sniffles. The idea of living her whole life in the same town she was born in makes her skin crawl. She likes their little house and her friends, but there’s nothing to do in Yancey, their one-stoplight town.

“And God knows that, sweetheart. He has other plans for you. You just gotta trust in him.” Darcy sighs and looks at the website, conflicted. Her mom looks down at her with pity. “Do you really wanna do this honey?” Darcy nods, and her mother sighs. “Alright girl, go get me my purse.” Darcy grins and pushes back from the kitchen table, flouncing across the slightly sticky linoleum over to her mom’s purse.

**~~~Elsewhere~~~**

The young man in the dark uniform knocks nervously on the heavy office door.

“Come in,” a cold and commanding voice calls from the other side. The young man opens the door tentatively. Behind the door, an older man sits behind an imposing desk, salt and pepper hair on his head, clean shaven, and impeccably dressed. He looks up, somewhat irritated.

“Sir?” the young man gulps nervously.

“Yes?” the older man sneers, rolling his eyes in exasperation.

“We have a database hit for Project Puzzle, and Agent Reynolds said to inform you, sir,” he spits out, overly quick.

“Who’s it for?”

“Agent Rumlow, sir. Agent Reynolds said with promotion boards coming up you should be aware.”

“The match?” The older man holds out his hand expectantly, and the younger man places a thin file in his outstretched hand. The older man flips through it quickly. _Rather significant age gap, but that puts us at an advantage. Still too young for recruitment. Pretty for her age. Above average intelligence in a backwater town. Interesting,_ he muses to himself. “Excellent, start a file for her. Have Agent Johnson take the lead on it, keep tabs on her. I’d like yearly updates until she’s eighteen, then every six months after that.”

“Yes sir,” the younger man nods. The older man looks at him expectantly, and when he doesn’t move, the older man sighs.

“You may go.”

“Yes, sir, thank you, sir,” the younger man sputters, backing out of the office hastily. He shuts the door behind him with a loud click. The older man at the desk looks at the file again, running his finger thoughtfully over the smiling school picture of Darcy Lewis.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Several years later, and Darcy still hasn't had much luck.

(Several years later)

“Oh god, I totally forgot it was that time of year. What a bummer,” Darcy sighs, leaning back in her office chair.

“Huh? What time of the year?” Jane asks absentmindedly, not looking up from her work. Darcy kicks her feet up onto her desk and drapes her arm over her eyes theatrically.

“The email, Jane! The email!” she cries, gesticulating wildly.

“The email?” Jane questions. Darcy gives her a pointed look and sighs dramatically. “Oh! Ooooh! THE email. Dang Darce, that sucks,” she says quietly. “No new updates?”

“Nooooooooo,” Darcy sighs. “Not even any potentials. Honestly, at this point I should just not renew the subscription, you know?” Jane finally puts her tablet down.

“Darce, they just went global two years ago, people keep joining SoulMatch, maybe your soulmate lives somewhere outside the US,” Jane muses. “Maybe they aren’t allowed to join.” Darcy snorts and rolls her eyes.

“Who on God’s green earth isn’t  _ allowed _ to join SoulMatch Janey? It’s not like they’re some kid, they’re definitely older than I am so…”

“Anyone with a clearance isn’t allowed, I thought you knew. Maybe they’re a spy,” Jane snickers, looking back to her work.

“Yeah, not likely. With all the crazy ish we’ve done in the past few years, I’m pretty sure we would’ve met by now, you know?” Darcy spins herself absentmindedly in her office chair, pulling Facebook up on her phone. “Probably just a technophobe. Or really, really old-school. Like my mom,” she says, wrinkling her nose.

“Which is worse? Super-spy with terrible hours or someone without Facebook and Netflix?” Jane taunts. Darcy shudders, scrolling through her feed. “I think you should stick it out a few more years, at least until you officially lean into being a crazy old cat lady. It’s not too expensive, is it?”

“Nah, plus now I’m making actual money, so it’s no biggie.” She clicks the renew button on her email, and sighs, looking at her phone. “Ugh, this is depressing. It’s like all it took was two years post-college and it feels like everyone’s met their soulmate. Do you know how many weddings there were this year? So. Many. Plus, my sister-in-law is pregnant, and she’s only like, a year older than me.”

“Hmmm,” Jane murmurs, writing equations.

“We should take a break, huh?” Darcy chirps, standing up.

“Ehhhh…” Jane grumbles, pulling a face.

“C’mon Janey, you’ve been in the lab since yesterday after dinner, you need a break. And a shower probably.” Jane simply grunts in response. “We could go to the place on K Street with the scones you like…” Jane stands abruptly. 

“Okay, let’s go.” Darcy grins, pulling on her coat and scarf. 

They make small talk in the elevator, and Jane is careful not to bring up the subject of soulmates, even trying not to mention Thor. When Darcy first became Jane’s assistant, they were both without soulmates, and both focused entirely elsewhere, Jane mostly because her post-doc work took precedence over everything else. Jane had made the effort to keep things the same between them after Thor, but it was hard. Especially since they moved into the tower, when they went from being roommates in a cramped trailer to living separately.

They find themselves cradling to-go cups as the city sidewalk begins to get wet with rain. Darcy pulls her scarf up higher to shield her face from the rain. Two blocks from the Tower, they pause at a crosswalk, and a nondescript van pulls up along the curb and idles. Before they can step off the sidewalk, the door of the van slides open. Black masked figures rush out of the van, grabbing Jane and Darcy roughly, dragging them into the van. Darcy thrashes wildly, striking out with whatever she can hit, fists and feet making contact with masked figures. She tries to scream, but one of them knocks the wind out of her, and she gasps for air. The door of the van slams shut and the vehicle is off, but Darcy doesn’t stop trying to fight.

“Jesus fucking Christ, give her something, will you?” A stern voice calls from the driver’s seat. Suddenly one of the men is trying to put a cloth over her mouth. Darcy thrashes more furiously and tries to scream, but one of them punches her in the stomach. The moment she doubles over in pain, the cloth is shoved in her face. Darcy holds her breath, face turning red with exertion.

“Come on, sweetheart, take a deep breath,” one of them hisses, disgusting breath turning her stomach. Darcy tries to headbutt him, but another one wraps strong arms around her midsection, immobilizing her. She holds out for as long as she can, black dots spotting her vision. As if on reflex, she sucks in air, and the world goes black around her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh it's been forever since I've been able to write. Had the most stressful semester EVER, but I'm finally done! Let me know what you think!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy wakes up in an unfamiliar place.

Darcy comes to sitting on her butt on a cold concrete floor, leaning against an even colder concrete wall. Her hands are secured behind her back with zip ties, and glancing down, she can see more zip ties securing her legs together. Every muscle in her body feels achy, and her head throbs with pain. She can feel a warm body next to her, and she cranes her neck painfully to look. Jane is next to her, still dead to the world.

“Son of a bitch,” Darcy hisses in pain, her head still throbbing. “Jane,” she whispers loudly. “ JANE.” Jane begins to stir and opens her eyes groggily.

“Where’re we?” She mumbles, words slurring together, almost drunkenly.

“No frickin clue,” Darcy mutters. “How loose are your hands?”

“MmmmmmDunno,” Jane murmurs.

“Damn it,” Darcy snarls. Her mind is racing, trying to think of who could’ve taken them, where they could be, and how long it might take for anyone to realize they’re gone. Darcy can’t feel her phone in her pocket, so she knows finding them isn’t going to be a piece of cake. Jane hums dreamily to herself, clearly still in her own world, when Darcy’s ears prick up at the sound of arguing outside the door. She strains her ears, catching bits and pieces of conversation.

“Fucking useless...can’t depend on you to get anything right…”

“Harder than we thought...not alone...can’t expect me to…”

As she leans closer to the door to hear, she doesn’t notice the precarious angle she’s at until it’s too late. She crashes onto her side, and before she can stop herself, lets out a very loud “Motherfucker!”. There’s a sharp laugh on the other side of the door.

“Quite the mouth on that one, huh? Kind of a pity to be honest,” a voice says, as the door clangs open. Framed by the doorway are two large men, one older, greying, clearly in charge, and the other younger, brawnier, with close cut hair.

“Rollins,” the older man barks, “take the good doctor and help her get comfortable in interrogation.” Darcy opens her mouth to say something but he cuts her off. “I do hope you’ll keep your mouth shut Miss Lewis, wouldn’t want us to have to hurt you, mm?”

The younger man, Rollins apparently, lumbers into the cell and moves to pick up Jane. Darcy considers kicking out at him, but a sharp glare from the older man keeps her still. Jane is hauled like a sack of potatoes out of the cell. She’s trying to say something to Darcy, but Darcy can’t make out any words. As soon as Jane and Rollins are out of sight, the older man regards her coolly, a small smirk playing at his lips.

“Rumlow!” He shouts over his shoulder, his gaze quickly returning to Darcy. A second man appears in the doorway. If the circumstances were different, Darcy would probably think he was handsome, just her type, maybe even hit on him a little bit. But under the current circumstances, all she can feel when she looks at this man is rage.

“Rumlow, dispose of Miss Lewis,” the older man says, his eyes never leaving Darcy’s face. She feels her heart rate spike, and her breathing quicken, like she’s on the verge of a panic attack.

“Yes sir,” Rumlow says, emotionless.

“Hmmm, such a pity,” the older man murmurs to himself. “Rumlow, while you’re at it, might as well have a little fun with her, it’d be a waste not to get some use out of her.” There’s a flicker of something in Rumlow’s eyes, hesitation almost. The older man presses on. “Consider it a reward for your work on the Vienna extraction. I’ll give you all the time you need.” Rumlow nods stiffly, and the older man chuckles, turning on his heel.

Rumlow crosses the threshold and Darcy tries to wiggle away, limbs thrashing as much as possible given the zip ties. But it’s no use, the man throws her over his shoulder like she weighs nothing, and strides confidently out of the cell, headed god knows where. Darcy pummels the agent as much as possible, given her bindings.

“Get your filthy fucking hands off me you jack booted thug," she snarls at him. 

The agent, Rumlow, stiffens slightly and quickens his pace. He carries her into a room, sparsely decorated, and places her gently on the bed. With two quick motions, he cuts off the zip ties binding her. Darcy immediately lunges at him, throwing herself at him like a wild animal caught in a trap. Her limbs make contact with his body and she swipes at him with her nails. She doesn’t expect it, but he retaliates like he’s holding himself back. He expertly dodges her blows and quickly has her pinned on her back, pressing into the bed, her hands pinned above her head by his other hand. Darcy shudders, dreading what is sure to come next. She opens her mouth to scream, but he presses his hand over her mouth firmly. He presses his face close to hers and whispers to her so softly for a brief moment she’s not sure she hears him right.

“Shhhhhh. It’s me. I’m here,” he murmurs.

Darcy’s blood runs cold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think!


	4. Chapter 4

Darcy looks up into his dark eyes, panicked. She stills. He takes his hand off her mouth, and she says nothing for a brief moment.

“You…” she croaks, voice slightly hoarse. “Prove it. Show me it. I need to see it.” He looks down at her thoughtfully.

“Just don’t move.” She nods, and he sits up, still keeping her legs pinned beneath him. He pulls his shirt over his head in one smooth motion, revealing chiseled dark muscles. And there, by his hip, she can see it. Her handwriting, as it always looks, hastily written and scribbly. It’s too far away to make it out perfectly, but she knows what it says. _Get your filthy fucking hands off me, you jackbooted thug._ She stares at it, eyes locked onto it, feeling sick.

“I’m gonna puke,” she mutters, and in an instant he’s off of her, trying to get her into a better position. “Don’t touch me,” she snaps as he tries to rub her back comfortingly. He withdraws his hand, sitting quietly on the edge of the bed. They stay there a few moments as Darcy gets her breathing under control. “So...what are you gonna do?” She asks softly.

“I don’t know,” he sighs.

“You don’t have to do this you know...you could...I don’t know...help me get out.” He laughs sharply.

“Not happening,” he says cooly.

“You don’t have to be a bad guy you know, I could- I could help you,” she presses him, lifting herself off the bed to look at him. He says nothing. “You wouldn’t do that?”

“Do what?”

“Help me. Leave all of this behind. For me?” He looks at her again, and there’s something about the way that he looks at her that makes her want to cry. He’s sad, almost. But it’s deeper than that.

“No.”

Darcy feels hollow, like something deep within her has been extinguished. “Get up, we’re going somewhere,” he says quietly. He must see the panicked and distraught look on her face, because he looks hurt. “I’m not gonna hurt you, you just can’t stay here.” He stands smoothly and retrieves a pair of cuffs from one of his pockets.

Darcy stands shakily, slowly, almost in a trance. He snaps the cuffs on her before she can think to say anything, and then he’s leading her, stumbling, out of the room. Everything around her feels blurry and surreal. She looks down at her feet and sees them moving, but they feel separate from her mind, like she’s watching a movie of someone’s feet walking down an industrial looking corridor. The feet stop moving, and Darcy examines her hands in turn. She sees them in metal cuffs, but she can’t even feel the cool metal on her skin. She looks up and sees bars, and feels a slight pressure on her lower back. She half walks, half stumbles forward. Hands are turning her back around, taking the cuffs off, but she feels like she’s underwater, unhearing of anything going on around her. Someone is shaking her slightly, and she looks up.

“Darcy?” The man from before is looking down at her. “Darcy? Can you hear me?” She nods absentmindedly, and satisfied with her response, he slides bars back across her vision, clicking them into place with a loud clang. She reaches a hand out to touch one of the bars, sliding her hand around it and gripping it gently. He reaches a hand through the bars and cups her chin, angling her face up towards his. He looks at her, as if memorizing her face, absentmindedly stroking her face with his thumb. It only lasts a moment before he drops his hand and turns away from her.

“Adams!” He calls to another man. “Make sure no one lays a finger on that one. She’s spoken for.” The other man glances back at Darcy, looking her up and down appreciatively.

“Yours?” He asks her soulmate.

“Mine. Remember that,” her soulmate snaps. Before striding out the door, snapping it shut firmly behind him.

Darcy spends what feels like an hour just staring at the door he went through. Not processing anything around her. And suddenly, it hits her all at once. _That’s your soulmate._ She bites her lip, hard, to keep the tears at bay. _That’s your soulmate. That’s your soulmate and he’s a bad guy. A BAD GUY._ Darcy whimpers, and begins to pace aimlessly back and forth in the cell. Every possible outcome she had dreamed of when she was growing up, every fairytale fantasy she had when she was a teenager, all of it was crumbling down. Every happy ending she had ever imagined was an impossibility now. The crushing weight of that realization brings her to her knees. She curls up on her side on the floor of the cell, silent sobs wracking her body. She doesn’t know how long she stays like that, tears streaming down her face, shivering, but eventually, her body gives in to exhaustion, and she passes out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think!  
> On another note, I know I don't respond to comments really, still building up the courage to tbh, but I'm so so so appreciative of every single comment I get. I read every single one, and I reread them whenever I'm feeling down or uninspired. I love you guys!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keep an eye out for a blink-and-you'll-miss-it Tony/Pepper mention.

She doesn’t know how much time she spends in the cell. It could be hours or weeks. Time doesn’t seem real. She doesn’t feel anything, not even the fear she felt earlier. She doesn’t even feel sad, there’s just a profound emptiness that feels like it’s swallowing her up, taking all her emotions with it. Even the sound feels deadened. When the cell door is blasted off its hinges, she barely flinches. Someone saves her, one of the Avengers of course, but she doesn’t pay attention to who. Nothing seems important now. Everything passes in a blur around her. Logically she knows they take her to the Quinjet, bring her to medical, and take her back to her apartment at the tower, but when she’s sitting on her comforter, still fully dressed with her shoes on, she can’t remember any of it. The memories won’t come to her.

Jane, despite having a split lip and a black eye, is in better shape than Darcy. She guides Darcy until her feet are dangling off the side of the bed. With pale, slender fingers, Jane slowly unlaces Darcy’s shoes and slides them off.

“You wanna lay down, Darce?” Jane asks softly. Darcy tips back onto the bed gracelessly, letting out a puff of air. “You wanna talk about it?” Darcy sighs, pushing every bit of air in her lungs out. She’s silent for a moment, breathing slowly and deeply.

“It was him. He was there,” she whispers, barely audible.

“Who?” Jane reaches out and strokes Darcy’s hair gently.

“My soulmate,” Darcy replies, voice cracking with emotion she wasn’t aware was even there. “He’s...one of them…” she trails off, looking intently up at the ceiling.

They try to comfort her, of course. They all do. They make her dinner, have team movie nights and let her pick the movie, they don’t complain when she picks The Princess Bride for the tenth time in a row. Clint doesn’t fight her for the butteriest pieces of popcorn. Tony doesn’t tease her, which honestly just makes her more upset. Bruce privately asks if she needs to see someone, because he knows some great therapists…

But she’s just not the same. There’s something missing. Not a soulmate, because plenty of people don’t have soulmates and end up perfectly fine without them. No, it’s more complex than that. It’s not as though Darcy and her soulmate slowly grew apart, until the words alone couldn’t keep them together. It’s not like being born markless. She’s mourning. Not _him_ of course, because as far as Darcy’s concerned, he can pound sand. She’s not mourning what could have been with her soulmate. She’s under no delusions that he would miraculously see that he was the bad guy and instantly change sides and be the hero for her, although the thought has miserably crossed her mind several nights when she can’t sleep.  She’s mourning the life she had imagined for herself, the carefully constructed fantasy she had played out in her head for most of her life.

She spends most of her time aimlessly scrolling through social media in the lab. Jane doesn’t seem to mind that Darcy’s being paid to watch cat videos. For the first few weeks, everything makes her cry. Pictures of her college roommate with her soulmate on vacation in Valencia? Ugly sobbing. A high school classmate’s smiling pregnancy announcement with her beautiful soulmate slash wife? A meltdown complete with crying so hard she almost throws up. Romantic post shared by a cousin who hasn’t met their soulmate yet? Silent tears on and off for over an hour.

But then, it’s like something snaps inside her. Like Darcy has run out of tears, her remaining despair hardening into cynicism and snark, the likes of which none of her friends have seen before. Cute and hopeful post from a single friend? A snarky rant about how idiotic soulmates are, just like, as a concept. Engagement announcement from a friend of a friend, complete with adorable soulmate meet-cute story? A snotty comment about how...um... _actually_ statistically soulmates are more likely to get divorced than other groups, so...yeah. And on and on. If it grates on Jane, she doesn’t show it. She just lets Darcy snipe and sneer, getting it out of her system. There’s a coldness about her now, a certain nihilism that didn’t exist before. The rest of the team tiptoes around her, careful not to incite her wrath, which turns from anger to tears with lightning speed.

That is, until Pepper comes home from an extended business trip abroad. The first day she’s back, she summons Darcy into her office. Darcy drags herself out of the lab, wearing the scowl that seems to be permanently affixed to her face these days. She practically stomps to the elevator and jabs the button to Pepper’s floor viciously. Upon reaching Pepper’s office, Darcy raps her knuckles on the door, impatient.

“Come in,” Pepper’s voice is cool and even. Darcy huffs and yanks open the door, shutting it behind her with just a little bit too much force. Pepper gestures to the comfortable looking chair on the other side of the desk, and Darcy slumps into it. Pepper watches her silently for a moment, taking in Darcy’s baggy, wrinkled maroon sweater, her elbows peeking through holes, the ratty leggings, and Darcy’s beat up indoor outdoor slippers.

“Yes?” Darcy sighs, arching a brow slightly, as if daring Pepper to say something. Pepper says nothing, but scrutinizes Darcy more closely. Darcy feels almost exposed under her gaze. She opens her mouth to say something, but Pepper silences her with a slightly raised hand.

“Cut the crap Darcy, this,” Pepper gestures vaguely at Darcy’s somewhat...casual appearance, “has gone on far enough.” Darcy leans forward as if to snark back at her. “No, I think it’s time for some tough love. The slacking at work, the cruel comments, the flagrant disregard for any sense of professionalism-”

“So, what? You’re firing me?” Darcy snaps, unimpressed. Pepper raises her eyebrows, aghast.

“Oh god no.”

“Then why did you drag me up here,” Darcy sighs, tilting back lazily in her chair.

“You need some time off. Clearly,” Pepper says, eyeing a dried food stain on Darcy’s sweater. “So, where to do want to go?” Darcy looks at her, perfectly coiffed and sitting perfectly straight in her desk, dumbstruck.

“What?”

Pepper’s expression softens, and she leans forward. “Look, Darcy, it’s been almost eight months. And I know sometimes this,” she gestures broadly, “can be a bit suffocating. I think you need to get away, focus on yourself away from all of this. Find yourself again, if you will.” Darcy feels the last bit of sadness she’s held on to desperately try to claw its way out of her mouth. She swallows it, feeling the sadness pool in her stomach.

“Where would I even go?” Pepper looks at her thoughtfully.

“Well, before all of this, the soulmate, the Avengers, even before Jane, what was your dream? Before you went down this path, is there another path you had imagined for yourself?” They sit in silence for almost ten minutes, Pepper watching Darcy thoughtfully, and Darcy thinking carefully.

It’s astonishing really, taking a step back and realizing how much the Avengers have totally dominated her life for the past few years. There hasn’t really been time for much of anything else, there hasn’t been time for her to do, well, much of anything besides work in the lab and occasionally do movie nights with the team. It’s a little sad, Darcy thinks, but more terrifying is the realization that, really, this isn’t how she imagined her life turning out. It’s been years since she met Jane. She was just wrapping up her junior year then. She tries to think, her memory has been shot lately, and trying to remember anything of a time before Jane is staggeringly difficult. She’d had the worst roommate that year, something about never taking the trash out or something trivial like that, was desperate to get away for the summer because the lease wasn’t up til August. She had been furious about having to take the internship with Jane, because it had totally derailed her plans for something else, only she couldn’t remember what. A summer fling? An internship somewhere else?

“I guess I could go to grad school,” Darcy says softly.

“You wanted to go to grad school?” Pepper asks, seemingly genuinely curious.

“Yeah, I was a poli sci major,” Darcy smiles absentmindedly. “And with my grades, I knew I was gonna need grad school if I wanted a good job. I barely got a C in my foreign policy class that spring. I loved it, but I loved weekday girl’s nights more.” Pepper smiles too at that.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Pepper smiles again, more broadly this time. Darcy stands up to go, but before she can step through the doorway, Pepper stops her. “And Darcy?” Darcy looks at Pepper over her shoulder. “The more you fester over this, the more power he has over you. Don’t spend your entire adulthood consumed by something that just isn’t meant to be.” Darcy nods slightly at that, and shuts the door quietly behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think!

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like I always write Pierce into stories, but I can't help it, he's so good at being menacing and creepy. Also, I feel like my own animosity towards my hometown has seeped into my description of Darcy's hometown. Oops.  
> Let me know if you like it!


End file.
